Heritage Oil finds 'major gas field' in Iraq
Heritage Oil finds 'major gas field' in Iraq
The discovery of a new gas field in Iraq rises new hopes for the European Union which is looking to gain more independence from Russia.
Yesterday British exploration firm Heritage Oil has announced the discovery of what it is calling a "major gas discovery" in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Heritage said it estimated the field could have up to 12.3 trillion cubic feet of gas, with a flow rate of 75m cubic feet per day when the field is operational.
However, shares in the company fell 75.9p, or 17%, to 360.7p on the news. Clearly investors were expecting a discovery of oil fields and got disappointed to learn that indeed what had been found was a gas field.
The infrastructure for getting gas to its ultimate markets is not as highly developed in the region as the infrastructure for oil.
One potential option for the company is to route gas from the field to wealthy European markets via the planned Nabucco pipeline, although the pipeline itself is not due to be operational before 2015.
Yesterday British exploration firm Heritage Oil has announced the discovery of what it is calling a "major gas discovery" in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Heritage said it estimated the field could have up to 12.3 trillion cubic feet of gas, with a flow rate of 75m cubic feet per day when the field is operational.
However, shares in the company fell 75.9p, or 17%, to 360.7p on the news. Clearly investors were expecting a discovery of oil fields and got disappointed to learn that indeed what had been found was a gas field.
The infrastructure for getting gas to its ultimate markets is not as highly developed in the region as the infrastructure for oil.
One potential option for the company is to route gas from the field to wealthy European markets via the planned Nabucco pipeline, although the pipeline itself is not due to be operational before 2015.
